Water Cooler 10/12/18 Open Thread – Confessions of a Christian in Politics; California Ballots

G’day RedStaters, and Thank God It’s Friday! With election season in full swing, and having come through the most contentious confirmation process for a new Supreme Court Justice in my lifetime (and therefore ever!) there is a lot going on, and l really want to take the chance to pull up and take a deep breath. Maybe you need this too, or maybe you maintained perspective better than I did these last few months. Perspective comes from knowing that God has never failed us, and never will.

Fear Not

You may or may not have noticed by now that I talk more about faith than politics. If you have noticed this you may also have noticed that I struggled a bit over the last couple of weeks. Something about getting a conservative (Constitutional American?!) majority on the Supreme Court of the US captured my imagination and I got ALL TOO wrapped up in worry whether or not one side or the other would win this battle, and whether Kavanaugh would get confirmed. In all transparency – I’m not proud of it. More stress and worry than prayer and faith. Is that what we are called to? NO. From ESV Proverbs 3:5:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.

Is there anyone else feeling like they can be, or are, way too worried (FEAR) about the battles of the world? Lean in to the Lord! Has this seeking of the Lord ever failed you? Me neither. Yet my flesh still tries to worry the solutions into place versus trusting that the Lord has this in control. This is crazy. We abandon the one who has never abandoned us or gotten it wrong, for the one (ME) that has NEVER gotten it right. Wha???

Our Lord created Lucifer (actually translated “Prince of Light”) knowing that Lucifer would rebel and decide to make himself the center of the universe. Hostile to God, he got a new name, Satan (translates as “The Accuser”) – you go, you do you. Why? God knows if we are not free to say no to him, we are not FREE to say yes to him. God being LOVE, being BIG, says “bring it”. So Satan, and me, and you – we are all free to lean in and trust. Or not. And sometimes my flesh is “NOT”, but with God’s help I trust him more and more, and worry less.

My God is a God who can make enemies destroy themselves. Or protect his people in a Lion’s Den. Or a super-heated oven. Not a big deal. If someone is part of the plan, the Lord is well capable of making sure that they will be around to play their part. Period.

But people on the other hand. We are not so omniscient and omnipotent. We can’t even figure out how to talk to each other according to his guidance – in “Truth and Love”. Just two words, in balance. Both critical. If we:

OVEREMPHASIZE LOVE: We protect someone’s feelings at the expense of the truth. Our communication becomes in essence a “White Lie” – not the truth, but what we will say to “protect” the others. Did Jesus do this?

OVEREMPHASIZE TRUTH: We forget about grace and our failures and hammer one of God’s children against the perfect standard (that we could never live up to). Now our communication becomes judgmental and the hammer versus the light that leads the broken to their Savior.

I tend to be heavier on love than boldness with truth. How about you?

California Ballots – Vote, Vote for Sanity.

Speaking of the truth, the truth is that in California, the inmates are running the asylum. I feel for the sane who are in politics in California, because day after day they get run over by loons. Sane politician:

How about we work on entitlement reform today?

Wacky majority politician:

You’re funny. Today we are going for a “grand slam”. Gun control, new taxes, new benefits for illegals, and we’re going to identify some portion of the prison population and set them free. So sit down and shut up.

Sane politician:

Excuse me?

Wacky majority politician:

Just for that, we’re going to add carbon taxes, and a few more regulatory burdens on business. Do you still want to backtalk?

So you can see it’s difficult here. We sane people must vote no matter what, straight Republican, anti-bond (tax).

If the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings didn’t convince you. If the left advocating violence didn’t convince you. If after watching Maxine Waters, Mazie Hirono, Elizabeth Warren, Diane Feinstein, etc did not convince you that all sane people need to go and vote sane, maybe this will – it’s a biblical imperative (ESV James 4:17):

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

God Bless

Pray for our nation. Pray for our leaders. Pray that we would be wise in our stewardship of the American Experiment. I will be praying for all of us.